The latest film study: Art imitating tech

Hollywood’s relationship with Silicon Valley has gone from devout adversary to begrudging admirer.

Blame it on the narrative. Technology and its icons have transfixed American culture and transformed cinematic production. As a bout of recent films indicates, a field once connected with oversized nerds and luckless date nights has become a nuanced world to question and explore.

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“It’s changing our lives,” said Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster and consulting professor at Stanford University. “That’s a hell of a good story and catnip for Hollywood.”

The movie "jOBS," starring Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, premieres Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. Two documentaries also showing contemplate the precarious nature of copyright laws and privacy rights. "Google and the World Brain" examines the company’s efforts to digitalize every book in the world; "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks" investigates the ethics and obligations of information sharing. A film about the perils of online data collection, "Terms and Conditions May Apply," is slated for debut at neighboring Slamdance.

Later this year, expect a film on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that features Benedict Cumberbatch of BBC's "Sherlock." Another documentary on the popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay will make a February appearance. Prominent screenwriter Aaron Sorkin also plans to rework Walter Isaacson's tome of Apple's tech pioneer.

“Historically, they’ve kind of ignored each other,” said Katherine Losse, a former Facebook employee who writes about tech and culture. “This is kind of striking that they’re moving together and stepping on each other’s toes a little bit.”

This is not a Hollywood love story. It was only a year ago that the entertainment industry and Silicon Valley neared fisticuffs over anti-piracy legislation. Internet rights activists launched a grass-roots movement that thwarted the bills, known as SOPA and PIPA. The industry remains wary about the rights to its productions.

These films do highlight the tech industry’s encompassing powers, occasionally turning organizations into heavy-handed brutes. Assange calls his upcoming portrayal “a massive propaganda attack.” Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told Gizmodo he and Jobs “never had such interaction and roles.” And an upcoming HBO sitcom on Silicon Valley mocks the industry as much as it compliments it.